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1. Field of Invention
The invention is an ambulatory cart to carry an IV pump, the IV bags or bottles and other items associated with portable IV units, the ambulatory cart having a light-weight plastic basket to which is attached two wheel for rolling the cart, the basket having a front leg to maintain the ambulatory cart in an upright level position when the ambulatory cart is at rest and a bumper at the rear to absorb impact when pulling the cart up stairs or steps. The ambulatory cart also includes two vertical support bars with a handle at the top of the bars, the support bars having an adjustable bracket with at least one bottle securing strap. Also attaching to the adjustable bracket and the handle is an adjustable height support staff having a horizontal IV bottle hanging support. The adjustable bracket slides and attaches vertically on the support bars to adjust to a height to provide IV bags or bottles with secure support, while the support staff slides vertically and attaches to the handle and the adjustable bracket.
2. Description of Prior Art
The following United States patents were discovered and are disclosed within this application for utility patent. All relate to IV devices for transporting an IV system. A first patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,700,257 to Minick, discloses a pouch within which is contained an IV bag and small ambulatory pump, the pouch having closure flaps to secure the IV bag and pump within the pouch.
A non-wheeled three leg support stand for suspending a plurality of IV bags is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,837 to Gawlik. A design patent illustrating a four-wheeled mounted infusion pump stand is disclosed in U.S. Design Pat. No. D 385,348 to Ward, comprising a singular vertical pole.
A portable IV support pole is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,056,249 to Fillon, Jr., wherein the single vertical pole has two adjustable vertical members which swivel independent of each other to prevent the tangling of the IV lines during transport of the portable IV support pole. This patent has no basket. U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,992 to Pryor discloses a portable IV support stand handle having a large grip portion, the handle attaching to an IV support stand with the handle resting on the telescoping adjustment portion of a singular vertical member, the handle also having screw to attach to the bottom of accessories having screw holes. This handle also has a channel to accept a headboard or footboard of a bed.
A improvement to a hospital cart is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,685 to Phillips which includes a common wheeled cart having a lower shelf and an upper shelf, with three adjustment receivers located in the top shelf, each receiver accepting an IV pole with the three adjustment receivers oriented in a triangle to promote stability of the cart.
The primary objective of the invention is to provide a portable cart to allow a patient on an IV to carry his IV accessories and infusion pumps with him, providing stable and secure transport of the IV accessories and giving the patient enhanced mobility.
A second objective of the invention is to provide a device similar to a dolly, which may be tilted onto two wheels having a basket to contain an IV infusion pump at a lowered location giving the device a lower center of gravity, preventing accidental overturning of the IV transport device, the device seeking an upright orientation due to the low center of gravity, while securing potentially breakable glass IV bottles.
A third objective is to provide the invention in an embodiment to allow for the easy transport of the device up steps or stairs, unlike the prior art, which must be transported on a flat surface only.